Download - Prehistoric 2012
Prehistory
An Overview
Dating Conventions and Abbreviations
B.C.=before Christ
B.C.E.=before the Common Era
A.D.=Anno Domini (the year of our Lord)
C.E.=Common Era
c. or ca.= circa
C.=century
The Paleolithic period“old stone age”c. 500,000 BC - c. 6000 BCBasic features
Hunting and gatheringRemarkable art (and religion?)Simple tools of chipped stoneSimple sheltersFire
• c. 150,000 BCLanguage
Homo habilis-lower Paleolithic
“Handy Man”
In Africa, an early ancestor of modern
humans, called Homo habilis
developed the earliest known stone tools.
These were relatively simple tools known
as choppers.
These humans likely
subsisted on scavenged
meat and wild plants,
rather than hunted prey. Poulnabrone dolmen in County Clare, Ireland
Homo erectus
Upright man
About 1.3 to 1.8 million years ago.
The species originated in Africa and
spread as far as India, China and
Java
H. erectus learned to control
fire and created more complex
chopper tools, as well as
expanding out of Africa to reach
Asia.
The Mysterious Neanderthal - Middle Paleolithic
This period began about 200,000 years ago
Neanderthals (closely related to
modern humans)
lived (c. 120,000–35,000 years ago)
This period began about 200,000 years
ago
Neanderthals (closely related to
modern humans)
lived (c. 120,000–35,000 years ago)
The stone artifact technology-
Mousterian.
Extraordinary art!
Middle Paleolithic peoples demonstrate
the earliest undisputed evidence for art
other expressions of abstract thought such as intentional burial of the dead.
Human evolution
The Australopithecines
“Lucy”
Middle Paleolithic religion
ritual burial
Eating
Who was the more productive?
The hunter?
Or the gatherer?
Homo sapiens –Upper Paleolithic
about 35,000 to 10,000 years ago
The cave art of Lascaux is an example
of Upper Paleolithic culture
Globally, societies were hunter-
gatherers
evidence of regional identities
begins to appear in the wide
variety of stone tool types being
developed to suit different
environments.
Homo faber
B.
C.
Early stone tools
A. Homo habilis
B. Homo erectus
C. Neanderthal
A.
Cave art
What general theme is evident here?
Cave artists
Settling down
Prerequisite to civilization
The peripatetic life
Travelling from place to place
c
The Neolithic periodBegan in Middle East around 6000 BC
Polished stone
tools
More settled, less
nomadic
lifestyles
“permanent”
villages
Population
increases
Development of a
more
complex and social
order
Food production
Basic features
The Neolithic periodAdoption of agriculture &The development of pottery
More complex, larger settlements such as Catal Huyük and Jericho.
Agriculture and the culture it led to spread to the Mediterranean,
the Indus valley, China and Southeast Asia.
The first large-scale
constructions were built,
including settlement towers
and walls,
e.g.: Jericho and ceremonial
sites, Stonehenge Skara Brae, Scotland.
The Fertile Crescent
Shaduf (Arabic) – irrigation tool originally developed in ancient Mesopotamia
The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region containing the comparatively moist and fertile land
Shaduf or shadoof
Farming Development of Agriculture
Basis of civilization
innovations like the use of fire and
the development of agriculture
the development of tools, language and
writing. From Hunter/Gatherer to Horticulturist to Agriculturist
An important center appears to be Greater Mesopotamia (present day Iraq). This is a rich flood plain where wheat, barley, and oats are believed to have originated.
The image below shows the Zagros mountains of Iraq where the landscape appears much as it probably was 10,000yearsago.
Age Period Tools Economy Dwelling Sites Society Religion
Stone
age
Paleolithic
Handmade tools and objects
found in nature – cudgel, club, sharpened
stone, chopper, handaxe,
scraper, spear, Bow and arrow,
harpoon, needle, scratch awl
Hunting and gathering
Mobile lifestyle –
caves, huts, tooth or
skin hovels, mostly by rivers and
lakes
A band of edible-plant
gatherers and
hunters (25-100 people)
Evidence for belief
in the afterlife
first appears in the Middle
Paleolithic or
Upper Paleolith
ic, marked by the
appearance of burial rituals and
ancestor worship. Priests
and sanctuar
y servants appear in the
prehistory.
Mesolithic (known as
the Epipalaeolithic in areas not effected by the Ice Age (such as Africa))
Handmade tools and
objects found in nature – bow and
arrow, fish – basket, boats
Tribes and
Bands
Neolithic Handmade tools and objects found in nature – chisel, hoe, plough, yoke, reaping-hook, grain pourer, barley, loom, earthenware (pottery) and weapons
Agriculture Gathering,
hunting, fishing and
domestication
Farmsteads during the
Neolithic and the Bronze
Age Formation of cities during the Bronze
Age
Tribes and the
formation of
chiefdoms in some Neolithic
societies at the end of
the Neolithic period'
States and chiefdoms during the Bronze Age
Bronze Age Copper and bronze tools,
potter's wheel
Agriculture – cattle –
breeding, agriculture, craft, tradeIron Age Iron tools
Social Organization/Control
Hunting &Gathering Agriculture
communal life private life, property increasing
little specialization in social or economic roles
social and economic specialization
gender roles (?) gender-specific roles
relatively egalitarian social hierarchy emergescultural/technical
information is widely diffused
cultural/technical information expands and becomes a form of
property custom, tradition rule coercion becomes necessary
Hunting & Gathering Agriculture
Small bands (25-250), semi-nomadic existence
sedentism, expanding population
seasonal migration permanent living sites
wide variety of food sources (typically 350 plant varieties)
replaces diversity with monoculture
exploits territory extensively exploits intensively
security through diversitysecurity through specialization
small (portable) tool kit tool kit, technology
expands exponentially
Pottery
Weaving ,metallurgy
Domestication of animals and plants
Milk
Worker
Meat
To provide leather, wool,
hides
Manure for soil conditioning
Tools
A wooden axe.
Mesolithic Adze mounted directly onto
handle flint axe with wooden handle
Mesolithic Adze
Adze head on digging tool
Beaker-period Flint arrowheads
Flint arrowhead, at least 4,000 years old
Arrows, as used c. 6000 BC
Early flint arrow
Flint Arrowheads, c. 2000 BC
Neolithic leaf-shaped Flint arrowheads
10000-year-old Sickle, Flint
Arrowheads
art work of flint head of
arrowthree drawings of flint
heads, traditional, missing, incurved
The first writing
Evolution of shelters
Hut
Lean to
Tent
Pit houses
Paleolithic periodHut
Terra Amata, near Nice in France
between 450,000 and 380,000 BCE
The hut included a hearth, or
fireplace and was made by bracing
branches with a circle of large and
small stones.The hut was 8 meters long by 4 meters wide.
Hand-axes and other stone tools and flakes were found in
the vicinity
Paleolithic period
tent
Plateau Parain in France.
Dated to about 15,000 to 10,000 BCE,
tent was suspended over a
wooden framework and held
down by stones.
It included a central hearth.
Stone tools were fond in the
area around this site.
Paleolithic periodLean to
Le lazaret cave is located in southern
France .
Between 186,000 and 127,000 years
ago.
Area of the cave 32 by 11 feet.
Neolithic period Stonehenge
Stonehenge is probably the most important prehistoric monument in the whole of Britain and has attracted visitors from earliest times. It stands as a timeless monument to the people who built it.The Stonehenge that we see today is the final stage that was completed about 3500 years ago,
The first Stonehenge was a large earthwork .
built around 3100 BC.
They form a circle
about 284 feet in
diameter.
Neolithic period
The second and most dramatic stage of Stonehenge started around 2150 BC. Some 82 bluestones from the Preseli mountains, in south-west Wales were transported to the site.
During the same period the original entrance of the circular earthwork was widened and a pair of Heel Stones were erected. Also the nearer part of the Avenue was built, aligned with the midsummer sunrise.
Neolithic period
The third stage of Stonehenge, about 2000 BC, saw the arrival of the Sarsen stones, which were almost certainly brought from the Marlborough Downs near Avebury, in north Wiltshire, about 25 miles north of Stonehenge. Modern calculations show that it would have taken 500 men using leather ropes to pull one stone, with an extra 100 men needed to lay the huge rollers in front of the sledge. These were arranged in
an outer circle with a continuous run of lintels. Inside the circle, five trilithons were placed in a horseshoe arrangement, whose remains we can still see today.
Neolithic periodSkara brae
Skara Brae, situated near the Bay
of Skaill on Orkney's Mainland, is
unique: it is a complete village with
houses and streets. The houses are built closely
togetherand made of stone.
The spaces between the houses was filled with rubbish and turf for some kind of protection against the wind.
he houses, which measure from 4.3m x 4mto 6.4m x 6.1m, were probably roofed with timber, whalebone, turf and heather.
It is a free-standing structure, with a central hearth but no household furniture.
Neolithic periodAin Mallaha
Ain mallaha ,near lake hulen,israel .Between 9000-8000 BC.There were about 5o dry stone huts on a open site of
some 2000sq.mMost of them circular, semi-subterranean and rock
lined, from 3m to 9m in dia.Beehive forms were constructed of reeds and were
supported on posts The huts were dug into the
bank on the upper side to a depth of about 1.3m and the entrance were located on the lower side.
Some of the huts had stone paved floors, and had walls finished with lime plaster painted red ochre
Catal HüyükModern Turkey. 6500 BCE.Situated at the foot of the Taurus mountains
in Anatolia. It extended over 13 ha (32 acres) with a
population of 20000-60000 people.
Rectangular single roomed houses each about 25sq.mwith plastered walls and floors.
Densely packed with open courtyard .floor were covered with straw mats and wall designed with simple geometric designs.
Catal Hüyük
Animals were kept in very close proximity to human living quarters. The flat roof-tops of houses were used as living space in the evening. Later, open central courtyards were developed
beidha The first hut in beidha (7000 -
6000BC),in southern Jordan.the dwellings and storerooms were grouped in clusters within walled courtyards,
Whole village was surrounded by a stone wall.
Each house had one room measuring 7mx9m.Floor and walls were plaster with red stripes
Anumber of shrine like buildings found at Jericho (7000 BC).
A small room ,consist of standing stone with in a niche. inner chamber containing a pair of
stone pillars symmetrically.
Arphachiyah -5000bc
beehive shaped tholoi were built
in the Mesopotamian lowlands
during the Neolithic period .
it is in keyhole -shaped in plan.
Walls were 2m thick .
Rectangular anti rooms were up
to 19m long.
Domed chambers up to 10m
across.
Walls were plasters ,occasionally
painted red,
Roofs were thatched .
Khirokitia
located in Cyprus -5650 BC.
Round houses 3m to 8m in
diameter.
Lower part of the walls were
made up of limestone.
Dome is constructed using mud
brick
Some houses had double wallsStone pillars were constructed to support the lofts Outbuilding used for grinding
corn,Storage, cooking andWorkshops.Wall courtyard